After months of speculation and, recently, a spate of pointed criticism directed at incumbent Carlos Gimenez, Raquel Regalado has now confirmed she’s running for mayor of Miami-Dade County. “At some point you just have to decide and say, ‘Look, beyond the criticism, what should we be doing differently?'” Regalado tells…
Gwen Margolis, an 80-year-old Democrat and longtime political veteran, is Miami-Dade’s richest state senator, according to data recently released by FloridaWatchdog.org. For her 2013 filing, Margolis, who represents the state’s 35th district, which encompasses much of the eastern part of the county, including Key Biscayne and Miami Beach, reported a…
As a longtime muckraking blogger covering North Miami and North Miami Beach, Stephanie Kienzle, who runs the site VotersOpinion.com, takes her role as local government watchdog seriously. She values her public voice. But when she posted an unflattering blog about the North Miami police chief nearly two months ago, Kienzle…
Electricity surges through a spinning blue Earth. A wind turbine whirs majestically under a perfect puffy cloud. A girl runs her hand through a wheat field bathed in golden light. And a sleek racecar is unveiled as engines rev and fans scream. “The race to the future,” a faraway voice…
The rains of God came down Saturday. The result was flooded streets, stranded cars, and bone-soaked tourists. All in all as much as eight inches dropped on parts of Miami-Dade, along with strong winds. If you were caught in Saturday afternoon’s downpour, you already know it sucked. Especially if your…
More than seven months after it was announced that the University of Miami had sold an 88-acre parcel of endangered pine rocklands habitat to a developer set on building a Walmart, the project remains stalled pending environmental certification — and the blowback continues. Today at 3 p.m. supporters will gather…
Formula E, the new, all-electric spinoff of the Formula 1 car-racing series, is coming to Miami in a couple of weeks, when the Miami ePrix will take over Biscayne Boulevard. But the series could be here to stay. At today’s city commission meeting, Mayor Tomás Regalado will introduce a resolution…
Joe Garcia, the Cuban American former Democratic congressman who lost in November to newcomer Carlos Curbelo, is not running for office again. Instead he’s joining a bank. Today QueensFort Capital, a Miami-based bank that specializes in large capital foreign investment, announced Garcia was coming on board as senior vice president…
Even in a city where deadly hit-and-runs are a weekly occurrence, a vehicular homicide this weekend was particularly brutal. Early Sunday morning, 39-year-old Takesha Shawanna Hayes — who used a motorized wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis — was hit by a car as she rolled through a Little Haiti intersection…
A battle is brewing for the soul of Miami’s most iconic neighborhood. Little Havana, the spiritual home of the Cuban diaspora that populated the area in droves following the 1959 revolution, is still mostly a blue-collar immigrant neighborhood. But proposed zoning changes for taller condos and more commercial development have…
In December of 2013, the American hemisphere was hit for the first time by an outbreak of a mosquito-borne disease that, although rarely fatal, causes acute fever, bright red rashes, and excruciating joint pain that can last for months. By last summer, Chikungunya was devastating the Caribbean. Hundreds of thousands…
In early 2014 all of Miami was horrified by the story of “D.J.”, a local 13-year-old runaway who was held against her will and forced into prostitution and exotic dancing at Club Madonna in South Beach. See also: Three Arrested in Miami-Dade for Forcing 13-Year-Old Into Prostitution, Stripping at Club…
Raquel Regalado hasn’t actually declared she’s running for county mayor yet, but that hasn’t stopped her from funding a new poll that shows her chances of winning the job are “very, very positive,” the school board member tells New Times. The internal poll, commissioned by billionaire Regalado backer Norman Braman…
In March 2013, Chicago resident David Schlessinger was at the Calle Ocho music festival when he tried to take a group of friends to a restricted area. He mentioned his Clear Channel connections and flashed old BET credentials, but a guard refused to let him pass. “‘That guy’s an idiot,'”…
Thirty-year-old Reginald Killings was outside his home. Twenty-one-year-old Maurice Cabrera was riding his bike. Both men were shot multiple times, and both were killed. A 14-year-old was shot in the face, and another man was shot in the upper chest. And all the gunfire went down in a few hours…
The Disneyland measles horror has been spreading, but Miami-Dade kids, at least, should be protected: 98 percent of public school students are vaccinated, according to Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesperson Daisy Gonzalez-Diego. “The District is at a solid vaccination rate,” Gonzalez-Diego said in a statement, “but we will continue to…
Last weekend, construction equipment on an Overtown construction site was set on fire. It was a likely arson. The blaze provided a highly visible symbol of long-festering discontent in the historically black neighborhood. But residents themselves have been blighted by a much less apparent injustice: As the CRA and other…
Some South Florida massage therapists are dealing with a headache that no back rub will fix. That’s thanks to a new state law mandating that, by January 31, all licensed massage therapists in Florida submit to a criminal background check if they want to continue practicing. The law was designed…
The Spanish-language radio station La Poderosa (670 AM) broadcasts from a large, square concrete-and-glass building on SW 27th Avenue in Little Havana. The building’s cafeteria, Bocadito Express, is a poorly lit, one-room blue-collar spot on the ground floor where area workers drop in for cafecitos and medianoche sandwiches. Raquel Regalado…
The list of architects who worked on North Beach’s Biltmore Terrace Hotel reads like a dean’s list of Miami greats: Albert Anis, Melvin Grossman — and the biggest name of all, Morris Lapidus, the man behind the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc. The rectangular beachfront space at 87th Street and…
In the wake of this week’s controversy involving free speech, social media, and allegations of filth at one Miami-Dade high school, students at another are reportedly sending out their own pictures of unhygienic conditions. The new photos were taken by students at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, according to Lisa…
Dr. Lucia Cox, the recently embattled principal of Miami Sunset Senior High School, resigned Wednesday following days of uproar stemming from students’ viral social media posts about school conditions. “Recognizing the best interests of Miami Sunset Senior High School, its students, faculty, and community and standing firmly on the high…
